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# Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever, a historian devoted to Rome and Roman symbols
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/mer-antverpena-bart-de-vever-po-obrazovaniiu-istorik-i-khotia-on-spetsializirovalsia-na-flamandskom-natsionalnom-dvizhenii-i-nepravilno-saliutuet-vne-akademicheskoi-zhizni-on-obozhaet-r/
- Published: 2024-10-16T08:36:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:46:02.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Mores, Society, People, Humour

The mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, is a historian by training, and although he specialised in the Flemish national movement and salutes incorrectly, outside academic life he adores Rome and all things Roman. In the photograph he celebrates his election victory with Roman regalia: a standard with a golden eagle and the abbreviation Senatus Populus que Antverpiensis. The young man in a sweater with a Stone Island patch, holding the standard, is De Wever's son, who is keenly involved in his father's hobby.

Bart De Wever can be met at reenactors' gatherings and city festivals in the uniform of a Roman legionary. Yes, it is certainly odd for a Belgian nationalist: instead of extolling his Frankish and Celtic roots, he pays homage to a despotic empire that oppressed his forebears and forcibly Latinised them.

And yet it is quite likely that this whole cult carries a deep allusion to the Antwerp legend of the Roman soldier Silvius Brabo, who defeated the wicked giant Druon Antigoon, the killer of sailors travelling along the Scheldt. Brabo cut off Antigoon's hand and threw it into the river, which gave rise to the name Antwerp: hand werpen, the throwing of a hand. Indeed, what could be more Roman than the throwing of a hand?

It remains to be seen at what point in the realisation of this metaphor the West, or in this case Belgium, will rise in glory to its heritage and reclaim its rightful place; but if it is merely a masquerade, that is not condemned either.